Siding has long been used to protect the exterior walls of structures such as houses. Such siding is often made of vinyl or aluminum, and is attached to the exterior wall of a structure. At wall junction, such as corners, a corner post is used to retain the ends of the siding to the wall and to provide an aesthetically appealing junction between the walls. Corner posts are generally elongated structures that are manufactured by extrusion or molding, having an outside corner surface, a J-channel, and an attachment portion having holes or slots for fastening the corner post to the wall. During installation, the corner post is positioned on the corner of the building prior to installation of the siding and fasteners, such as screws or nails, are inserted into the holes within the attachment portion to retain the corner post to the wall. Then the siding is installed on the wall sections, with the end of each siding sheet located within the J-channel.
While corner posts are satisfactory for many uses, they have significant drawbacks. Notably, when a corner post becomes damaged, old, outdated and needs replacing, it can be very time consuming to replace. The siding sheets must first be removed before it is possible to gain access to the fasteners in the attachment portions. It can take hours to remove and replace a single corner post which is inefficient and creates significant labor expenses. Another drawback of corner posts is that they often lack in aesthetic appeal. Building owners, especially homeowners, frequently want to replace the standard corner post with an upgraded, better-looking corner post that may increase the aesthetic appeal of the building, and ultimately increase the value of the building. Corner posts with larger foot prints are often more desired, but they present additional problems with installation, since the siding sheets must be cut to fit with the positioning of the J-channels of the larger corner posts. Since it is time consuming and difficult to replace these corner posts, the building owners are often left with the choice of dealing with the original corner posts or incurring the time, labor, and expense of fully replacing the corner post.
Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.